glosseme

English

Etymology

From gloss- +‎ -eme, coined by Louis Hjelmslev and Hans Jørgen Uldall in the 1930s.

Noun

glosseme (plural glossemes)

1. The smallest irreducible unit of both the content and expression planes of language; the basic unit of language in the theory of glossematics.
   • 2022, B. Elan Dresher, Harry van der Hulst, editors, The Oxford History of Phonology, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 341:

     We can now for a moment leave Hjelmslev's own conception of such a system—based upon glossematic formal definitions—and ask: to which degree can this system of glossemes be defended from a general phonological or phonetic point of view?

Translations

smallest irreducible unit of language

• German: Glossem (de) n
• Italian: glossema m
• Russian: глоссема (glossema)
• Sicilian: ghiussima m, glossema m

Anagrams

• mesolegs